1. Field of the Disclosure
Embodiments of the disclosure relate in general to the field of computers and similar technologies, and in particular to software utilized in this field. Still more particularly, it provides a system, method, and computer-usable medium for providing automated processing of returned mailpieces.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is not uncommon for large companies, such as financial institutions and insurance providers, to receive thousands of pieces of returned mail every day. Even after automatically resending that mail, a large percentage (e.g., ˜30%) gets returned a second time. Typically, each piece of returned mail is opened, checked, and reprocessed, which costs time and money. In many cases, returned mailpieces are treated the same, regardless of their respective value. As an example, a quarterly 401K statement, or an insurance refund check, may be treated with the same level of priority as an advertising flyer.
Maintaining the accuracy of recipient data, such as the recipient's name and address, presents additional challenges for large volume mailers. One approach to this issue is the Address Correction Service (ACS) offered by the United States Postal Service (USPS). However, implementing the USPS ACS is known to be labor intensive and costly. Recently, the USPS has announced the Intelligent Mail Barcode, a height-modulated barcode that encodes up to 31-digits of mailpiece data into 65 vertical bars. The data encoded in the Intelligent Mail Barcode comprises four information elements: a service type identifier, a mailer ID, a sequence number, and a delivery point ZIP code.
However, all of these information elements are primarily oriented to facilitate the delivery of a mailpiece, not processing its return, and their use in providing corrected recipient name and address information is incidental. Furthermore, the Intelligent Mail Barcode and its USPS predecessors are incapable of cross-referencing recipient data, such as a recipient's name, address, or account number to a given mailpiece. Moreover, they fail to provide enhanced mailpiece data relating to the contents of an individual mailpiece. As a result, it is has become common for large mailers to have a staff of several employees whose primary responsibility is to receive returned mailpieces and manually determine the reason for their return. If their corresponding recipient information is incorrect, then it has to be corrected, which often involves tedious, manual, and error-prone processes. Then, each returned mailpiece has to be further processed so it can be resent, all of which incurs additional costs.